Claiming the right to vote – as a European
Tommy Tomescu is a Romanian dentist living and working in London. A passionate fighter for European citizenship rights, he ran for the European Parliament in the 2014 elections for his Europeans Party (you can watch him here as he defies anti-Romanian prejudices in Nigel Farage’s town). The struggle he is engaged in now deserves to be called heroic without fear of contradiction: he has mounted a legal challenge to the European Union Referendum Act 2015, which states that in the Brexit referendum only UK residents who are British, Irish and Commonwealth citizens will have the right to vote. As if suffering from a bad post-Empire hangover, MPs excluded EU citizens residing in Britain as well as Britons residing abroad for over 15 years: in other words, the people whose life will be most affected by Brexit, nationals of EU countries residing in UK and long-term British residents in EU countries, are denied the right to vote, but their fate may well be decided with the contribution of Bermudans, Canadians, and Falkland Islanders.
Tommy lost the first round and below he tells us what happened. We stand by him and wish him eventual success. Because we are shown the way to a breakthrough in transnational democracy and full-fledged citizenship rights – ultimately, a European Union of the citizens and for the citizens, if we think that’s something worth fighting for.
Thank you, Tommy!
EU federalism and the German Question
Introduction
The debate on the German question and European federalism continues: Protesilaos Stavrou responds to Thomas Fazi
European Federalism: answer to Thomas Fazi
by Guido Montani*
In openDemocracy of October 9th, Thomas Fazi critiqued my paper on The German Question and the European Question. Monetary Union and European Democracy after the Greek Crisis (DEM WP Series 105, University of Pavia). He maintains that while European democratic federalism is “possible and desirable”, this “does not make it more likely”.
The German Question and the European Question. Monetary Union and European Democracy after the Greek Crisis
by Guido Montani
Abstract – The dramatic clash between creditor and debtor countries in the EU shows that radical reforms are required. In this paper we argue that the EMU is a political project: it is a European public good, which must be provided by a legitimate democratic government. Yet during the crisis, Germany played the role of leading country, and the old dilemma between a German Europe and a European Germany cropped up again. Here we examine two interjurisdictional spillovers caused by asymmetries among the governance and size of the economies in the euro area: the bank-sovereign nexus and the internal deflation trap.
Winds of change from Britain?
by Francesca Lacaita
- Open Letter On Europe To Jeremy Corbyn by John Palmer
http://www.socialeurope.eu/2015/09/open-letter-europe-jeremy-corbyn/
'Brexit' and workers' rights – no case for a 'no' by Kirsty Hughes
https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/kirsty-hughes/brexit-and-workers-rights-%E2%80%93-no-case-for-no
- What should Corbyn demand of Europe? by Luke Cooper
https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/luke-cooper/what-should-corbyn-demand-of-europe
- Jeremy Corbyn: rebel with a cause, by Max Tholl
https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/max-tholl/jeremy-corbyn-rebel-with-cause
Progressive pro-Europeans from the “Continent” are not accustomed to looking to Britain for orientation. Not only because of the more widespread Eurosceptic attitudes there, but also, in particular, because of the traditional lack of interest for things European on the part of the British left. Could the election of Jeremy Corbyn as the leader of the Labour Party (who has recently declared he will campaign for Britain to stay in the EU, and in general reverse David Cameron’s stance on European issues) be sign of new times to come?
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